Gov't Managers Balk At Obama Plan To Thin Their Ranks

[babylonsister]

Group balks at Obama proposal to thin federal management ranks
By Brittany R. Ballenstedt [e-mail] December 18, 2008


Federal managers on Thursday urged President-elect Barack Obama to consider alternatives to a reform proposal that would reduce the number of mid-level managers in government.

"An arbitrary cut of managers based upon an across-the-board ratio for all of federal service is not {emphasis in original} the answer," wrote the Government Managers Coalition in a Dec. 17 letter to John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden transition team. "Instead, we encourage you to think about the long-term impact that qualified managers have on the ability of an agency to meet mission critical goals." The coalition is made up of five federal executive and management professional associations that represent more than 200,000 government managers.

The group pointed to the attempts of former incoming administrations to create a more effective government by focusing on what they often view "as a bloated federal workforce." The Clinton administration, for example, designed the National Performance Review, which called for increasing the ratio of one manager to every seven employees to one manager for every 15 rank-and-file workers. NPR also resulted in the reduction of 377,000 federal jobs, the coalition noted.

"In reaching President Clinton's reduction goals, agencies eliminated thousands of management positions without any measurement of the effectiveness of the effort and undoubtedly have had a direct impact on the increasing backlog of cases at the Social Security Administration and Veterans' Affairs," the letter said.

more...

http://www.governmentexecutive.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=41657&dcn=todaysnews

[wishlist]

1. Totally bogus to blame backlog of cases at SSA, VA on management cuts

The reason for the backlogs is not because of any management cuts (those have not even been noticeable) but cuts in the nonmanagement rank and file service and claims reps who directly deal with the public and process the claims. Those are the employees who have faced cutbacks and reduced overtime to process the cases, not managers. There have been large increases in claims due to population increases and the Iraq veterans but no subsequent increase in lower level employees who actually handle the day to day caseloads.

[atreides1]

2. It's a good idea

Some federal agencies have more mid-level managers in some departments then they have workers.

[a kennedy]

3. Like at a university I was working at......so many vice chancellors

made your head spin......and it was just to promote yes folks of the chancellor. :mad:

[demokatgurrl]

4. Balk my ass

he's POTUS can't he just fire whom he wants to?

[BeFree]

5. Of course they do

What fool wouldn't balk at losing their jobs?

Tell ya, most of the government management I've met is more concerned about their paycheck than anything else, and I've used that to motivate them when possible.

[ThomWV]

6. Employment problems in the Government have little to do with Employee:Supervisor ratio

It is not the number of supervisors but the quality of supervisors and the severe lack of turnover or movement within the Government (outside of the DC area where agency hopping is common) that are the problem.